The speaker of the Shan State parliament has said
that the regional government – not the central government – will recruit civil
servants for the Taunggyi-based assembly.

Speaking to lawmakers during a Shan State Assembly session
in state capital Taunggyi on Monday, Sai Long Sang said the recruitment of
office workers for the assembly would be an internal matter, undertaken by the state
government itself.

His statement came after Mahn Win Khaing Than, the speaker
for the Union Parliament in Naypyidaw, advised his Shan State counterpart that
“some changes were coming” to the parliament in Taunggyi during a visit in
February. He noted that those changes would be enacted by the end of this year.

“However, it was unclear what he meant by ‘changes’,”
said Sai Moon Lern, an MP from the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy
(SNLD) representing Mong Nai Township. “Whether the staff would come from the central
government or be recruited locally as new employees.”

Currently, there are little more than 10 office
workers at the Shan State government, all of whom were appointed by the central
government, a system that harks back to the days when the military-backed Union
Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) held power.

This current parliamentary session meeting started
on March 20 and is scheduled to end on March 23. Among the issues to be
discussed are: infrastructure development; and the state budget.